struggling to get ann's ms under control, they were about to face a challenge of an entirely different sort. >> the scandal over city's quest to host the winter games? the 2002 win olympics were in trouble. salt lake city was embroiled in a bribery scandal that threatened to bring down the games. so the search was on for someone to repair the damage. the list of people who could have come in and saved the 2002 olympics began and ended with mitt romney. >> romney knew finance, politics, and was a mormon and that made him the top choice. they called me instead of mitt. >> she said don't say no, mitt. i think you ought to run the olympics. don't be ridiculous. that's crazy. i would never do that. over time she convinced me.

>> so despite ann's health issues, the romneys left bain and moved to utah in 1999. but when romney really left bain capital is now controversial. on paper he was chief executive officer raising the question of his responsibility for companies that laid off workers when he was in utah. he says that he was gone from the company completely. that the olympics were all consuming. >> when he got there it was a disaster. he was panicked. he seriously considered saying, it is not goin to work here. there are too many problems. >> romney needed help. so he rallied an old friend from bain capital to be the games chief operating officer. >> mitt did describe it as stepping into an empty elevator shaft. you're not sure, you're falling and you're not sure when you're going to hit ground. >> he tried to join the team. they created an operating plan.

tried to convince sponsors to stay on board and took a critical look at the nearly 400 million dollar budget deficit staring them in the face. and even got rid of the usual catering at olympic board meetings. it was $1 a piece. he knew he could buy a pizza, sell them for $1 a slice and get $8 revenue for every pete a. he turned the lunches from a cost center. >> it is like putting on the olympics for 17 days straight. >> he became the public face of the game. even becoming an amateur participant seen here on the skelton. >> did he say one day, i think i will try this. >> yeah. he said i'm going to go try this. >> he got better and better and better. so he could get going 70 miles an hour which is crazy.

>> but hidden from the public was the continuing personal struggle. >> mitt was always just constantly worried about ann. she was really deteriorating. >> she battled through it. she got good help from wonderful physicians. >> by august 2001, it looked like they had ann's m.s. and the olympics under control. but then -- 9/11. >> smoke everywhere. >> unspeakable sorrow and a very real fear of terrorism at the olympics. >>t's a time to make sure everyone in the world recognizes that we don't stop as a nation. that the characteristics of honor and courage, sacrifice and devotion which is represented by the olympic athletes is a message more important today than perhaps ever before. >> over the next five months,

and with the help of some money from the federal government, security was beefed up. and the games began. >> we had about 2,500 athletes that came in. did the parade of nations. walked all the way around. it was a great moment for him. as one political pollster said, he could walk on water at that point. >> but not everyone agreed. >> mitt and i often had disagreements about what we thought the games were about. and i wasn't on his team so to speak. >> a gold medal day for utah. >> ken bullock, no relation to frazier bullock, was on the organizing committee of the salt lake city olympics before and after mitt romney was brought on board. >> he was a my way or the highway kind of guy? >> no question. to me the game was about utah.

it wasn't about mitt. >> bullet claims romney made the problems look worse than they really were. a calculated political move to ensure public success. >> did we need to raise revenue? were we short? yes. were we three years out, yes. big difference of the games being around the corner. >> so you think he overstated the problem. >> dramatically. dramatically. >> it's a charge the romney camp scoffs at. in the end the 2002 olympics were profitable and one of the most successful winter games in history. >> he had pulled off this big success. he had rescued these games. and now it was a question of what he would parlay that into. >> it wouldn't take long for that question to be answered. >> i'm meteorologist, krrn nn's

hurricane headquarters with an update on one of the peskiest storms we've seen in some time. we're about tropical storm isaac still sitting as a tropical storm. in the past few hours we almost had an eye beginning to form. that would have given the heat engine of this storm the core and center of circulation some energy to work with. possibly become a hurricane but a lot of dry air on the northern tier of this storm. really inhibiting it from getting beyond this tropical storm. at least at this point. the national hurricane center says this will get to a category 1 hurricane in the next few hours. but it will be not only severe flooding and inland flooding but a massive storm surge. off biloxi and new orleans and heavy rainfall in the order of six to ten inches, some areas as much as 20 inches of rainfall. of course the big question, the track. a landfall possible sometime tuesday night into wednesday morning. as early as about 2:00 in the mornin right now the track is in the mouth of the mississippi working toward biloxi.

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the opening ceremonies for the 2002 winter olympics were still more than a month away but

mitt romney already had other plans. beth myers remembers getting a call from romney in january. >> i'm thinking about running for governor and would you have any interest in helping me run my campaign? >> massachusetts had a republican governor, jane swift, but party leaders saw her as weak, so they came to romney in a panic. >> jane swift gets wind of this and two days later she bows out. she's out and mitt romney is in. he flies back to belmont with his wife, ann, they're both wearing olympic jackets and give a press conference and the campaign's begun. >> romney's spokesman. >> it was like being launched out of a rocket. >> how you doing? >> as you know, this is a very democratic state. the legislature is 85% democrat, very few republicans make it into statewide office. so we had a fight on our hands. >> he ran as a moderate on

social issues, vowing to clean up state government. >> would you raise your right hand, please? >> it worked. >> congratulations, governor. >> thank you. >> from the beginning, romney relied on a small set of advisors, beth myers, who has never spoken on camera before, was chief of staff. >> people call you romney's romney. >> for four years, we sat in offices that had a door between us and we popped back and forth between each other's offices all day long. we talked about faith. we talked about the issues of the day. >> first order of business, treat government like a business. >> we had a huge budget deficit. so every morning, we'd come in and we'd have stacks and stacks of budget books and line by line and mitt would meet in his staff office every morning with the cabinet secretaries. >> it was the way he had always done it. at bain, at the olympics.

but here, not everyone was on romney's team. >> i will agree he was a different cat than what people on beacon hill were used to. i think that's probably a pretty good thing. >> i got better over time. i know i made mistakes in how i det with others in the legislature but we started off pretty well. >> then, two years into his term, he set his sights on something bigger, something that would mean a legacy, health care. >> he had not had a major achievement that he could point to as some big political success in a future campaign. he needed something to say, i had done this and it was a big deal. >> romney decided to push for health care to cover everyone in the state. but that meant mandating most residents to buy health insurance. >> the governor felt that it would be wrong for the economy and wrong for our business sector to impose a mandate on

employers, to require them to provide insurance to their employees. but he felt it very important that people take responsibility for their own health care. >> it was romney's big moment. but now, a liability. republicans bitterly oppose any kind of mandate in today's presidential race. >> i think the politics of it have been so complicated, it's ironic the biggest thing he achieved as governor is something he almost never talks about. >> no less complicated, the politics of abortion. while romney was personally opposed to abortion, he ran for governor supporting abortion rights. but once in office and presented with stem cell legislation that would, in romney's view, have the potential of destroying embryos, he changed his mind. >> i realized that what sounded good in a campaign, when i actually became the governor and was going to be the person who would sign a piece of

legislation which could take human life, i simply couldn't do that. >> democrats say it was about ambition. >> he wanted to run for president of the united states. and he understood that within the republican nominating process, somebody that was pro choice or pro gay rights or anything in terms of a progressive stance would lose. >> i didn't see it as a flip-flop. i think that what you saw was the tension between personal beliefs and public persona. >> none of this would slow romney down. his sights were already set on the white house in 2008. there were doubts about his convictions and questions about his mormon faith, a religion some evangelicals call a cult. >> mormonism is the most colorful and controversial, politically toxic and dangerous because people pull out strands and skewer them. >> there was no avoiding it, though, so romney decided to

give a crucial speech on his faith early in the primaries. >> he wrote it. he really wrote every word. >> he wrote every word of it. you rarely hear that about a politician. >> he did. >> i am an american running for president. i do not define my candidacy by my religion. a person should not be elected because of his faith, nor should he be rejected because of his faith. >> ultimately, 2008 was not mitt romney's year. it was john mccain's. a brutal loss for romney and his family. >> i feel i have to now stand aside. >> for me, i was like, that's it. okay, we did that. that's fine. never again.

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you guys are great. almost but not quite. >> i will never do this again. and i just made sure it was very emphatic.

>> the romney family seemed done with politics and didn't keep it a secret. >> it was again a very bruising thing. i think people forget these are real families with people they love that are going through these hard times. >> when you lose, there's a period of intense disappointment. >> alex castellanos was a senior romney adviser during the 2008 campaign. >> he's not a wallow in defeat kind of guy. he's an okay, that's done, stand up, let's see where we go from here. >> the reasons for the loss were in plain sight. the campaign was a muddle. the staff divided and the candidate struggled to connect. >> mitt's a man who likes to talk more about what he does than who he is. so it's hard to get beneath the shell sometimes. he's a private guy. >> and back in his private life, romney kept his options open, writing a book, raising money

for other republicans, and waiting for the right opportunity and the go ahead. >> ann is the one that then came to mitt and said, i'm ready. let's do this again. >> so why the change of heart? >> it was a change of heart. what this m.s. disease has taught me is to learn how to be self-contained and how to not absorb some of the negative things and to recognize it was an endeavor worth doing and worth pursuing. >> i'm mitt romney. i believe in america and i'm running for president of the united states. >> but it was a different environment this time around. very anti-establishment. so romney was reborn as an outsider. >> i served in government but i didn't inhale. i'm still a business guy. >> fixing his 2008 mistake, romney had one driving message. >> and have the experience to get our economy back on track. that's the kind of leader i aspire to be. >> it became his mantra. but the tea party, full of contempt for health care reform,

never trusted romney, the man who reformed health care in massachusetts. erick erickson is the editor of redstate.com, a conservative website. >> you sit in the room with conservatives behind the scenes without cameras on and ask them how many really believe mitt romney will repeal obama-care, i don't think a hand will go up in the room. >> when romney calls himself this -- >> i was a severely conservative republican governor. >> he gets this -- >> that's not a line you hear conservatives say about themselves. that's something you hear democrats say about conservatives. >> this is not the time to be doubting people's words. >> one by one, the old demons reappeared. >> romney care. pro abortion. bain capital. >> handing the democrats a primer on romney's vulnerabilities. >> i will release multiple years. i don't know how many years. >> on bain, flip-flops, taxes, secrecy, his wealth. but romney finally crawled across the finish line.

his new junior partner, paul ryan, has given reluctant conservatives some hope. >> i want to hear what he has to say on this topic. >> presidential politics is more than just piecing together coalitions, it's also about telling a story of who you are, what you believe and why you can be trusted. >> he's very professional. he's got a bit of new england in him when he's out doing a job, he's going to do it professionally. but he's not the caricature the media or democrats want to portray. he's a very warm caring guy. >> good morning. >> romney is trying to let people in, like wading into scripture as he speaks after the aurora, colorado, shootings. >> blessed be god who comforteth us in all our tribulations. >> that's, to me, about 90% of who he is. that's the -- that's the mitt i wish people would see all the time because that's how i know him and that's how i think of him. there are moments like that you

can see that and really get a lens into his soul. >> but it can be fuzzy much of the time, leaving an opening for the opposition. >> people say you're secretive, you're out of touch. you play by a different set of rules. >> well, i know that the obama campaign is going to do everything they can to try and deflect from the economic record of the president and his failure to come up with a plan to get the economy going in the future. >> no doubt romney is on message this time. he wants us to believe he can fix things, like the economy, and won't give up until he does. but that's the easy part of his story. the rest is harder to tell. he's a devout mormon who still worries it will be held against him. he's more pragmatist than ideologue, more private than public. in the end, more cautious than candid. perhaps the ultimate lesson mitt romney learned from his father's life. >> he cared about passion for

the mission that he was in this middle of fighting for and winning or losing didn't change his perspective at all about who he was. he's been defined as a man of character throughout his life and elections don't change that. >> do you feel that way, as you look at this election, win or lose? >> absolutely. this is a choice that's up to the american people. and who i am has been long ago decided by my wife, by my five sons, by my grandkids, daughters-in-law and the people who know me best. we've just gotten a rare glimpse into mitt and ann romney's personal live. there's certainly a lot to discuss.

i'm wolf blitzer at the republican national convention in tampa. >> good evening, everyone. i'm anderson cooper in new orleans. politics is taking a back seat to personal safety. a big storm is on the way. >> i want to give you the latest on hurricane isaac. what will be hurricane isaac right now, it is a tropical storm. the national hurricane center says it will be a hurricane very soon. the storm's maximum sustained winds are 70 miles an hour. just four miles an hour under hurricane strength. a hurricane warning stretch from east of morgan city, louisiana, right now, to the alabama, florida border. isaac's forward speed is only about ten miles an hour. and is expected to slow down. that means a lot of rain here. because of that and the normal high tide, a significant storm surge is expected along the northern gulf coast. manner to evacuations have been ordered along the coast of

alabama, mississippi and alabama. low lying areas, thousands of people headed inland today. there is a lot to talk about. wolf will be covering it over the next hour and a half. let's go back to you in tampa. >> we also got a remarkable look at mitt and ann romney's faith, their struggles, their triumphs. and the excellent documentary. gloria is here. in that sit down interview that you had, you got into some other sense i have the issues as well. >> we'll show you some outtakes. and one of the questions, i asked him about is one that really has been dogging him his entire political career. that is, this question of flip flip-flopping on issues like abortion. >> one of people's big concerns about you overall is that they take look at massachusetts. they look at health care reform in massachusetts. you were pro abortion rights when you were in massachusetts, for example.

they look at how you've change and they say what do you stand for? what is mitt romney? what is at mitt romney's political core? >> keeping america the strongest nation on earth with the boast homes and values, the best schools, the capacity to defend liberty. i want to keep america strong. >> i love this country. i love the principles this country was based upon. those principles applied honestly and consistently will help families. will help working people. will grow a permanent middle class with better wages and better prospects. i want to do that for the american people and for this country which i happen to believe is an exceptional nation. unlike any other on earth. it was founded on the principal that our rights come from the creator and we can pursue happiness as we choose. this exceptional beginning leads

to an exceptional role in mission. >> so the people who say you've been on both sides of issues, or you've changed too much. what do you say to that charge? >> the president just changed his position on gay marriage. no one has any comment on that. oh, that's fine. that's president obama. we all say that's fine. he change his position. that's fine. he changed his position on a lot of things. a lot of things he said he would do. he decided not to do. in my case, when i ran for office, i said i'm not going to change the laws as they exist on abortion. i'm going to keep them the same. and then a bill came to my desk which would have expand dramatically t capacity of individuals to create embryos and then destroy them. this was for scientific purposes. and i said i can't sign that. i simply cannot sign it. and i realized that what sounded good in a campaign when i actually became the governor and was going to be the person who would sign a piece of legislation which could take human life, i simply could not do that. i wrote an op ed in the boston

paper. this was i think seven or eight years ago. and said, look, i'm pro-life. and i understand that and i'm going to be consistently pro-life and i have been in the seven or eight years that have passed since then. >> people say you're climbed of too secretive. you're out of touch. you play by a different set of rules. >> well, i know that the obama campaign is going to do everything they can to try and deflect from the economic record of the president and his failure to come up with a plan to get the economy going in the future. so they tried to attack me on a personal basis and frankly, distort my policies in remarkable ways. saying things that i do not believe. nonetheless, one of the thing they've come up is to say he won't release more of his tax returns. they didn't have that problem when john mccain was running. he released two years of tax returns. that wasn't an issue. they didn't make that an issue at that point. boy, they're making it an issue now. why? only one thing changed. president obama is now president and his record is not good and

he is for something else to try and make it the issue. you know what? the american people care about good jobs and good schools. and they know that's what i can deliver. >> gloria is here. this whole issue of flip flopping. that's hurt him. >> i think it goes to the question of what is at his core. can mitt romney be trust. i think it comes at him from both sides. it comes at him from the conservatives in both parties who were for anybody but romney during primary race. and i think it comes from democrats and from women who are pro abortion rights. and i think as erick erickson pointed out in the documentary, he said if you have a bunch of conservatives together in a room, you know, they would not trust him to repeal obama care, for example, as he calls it. so i think it does go to this question of what does mitt

romney believe? >> david gergen is here. what can he do if anything in the speech that he will deliver here, the acceptance speech thursday night to deal with this problem? >> i think the most important thing he's done so far is to pick ryan as his vice presidential candidate. he really doubled down. i think that was the most important signal he can send to conservatives. he has to decide in the speech, does he play to the base, in which case that reinforces their belief, their conviction, or does he broaden his message, and does he try to reach for some of these independents who is still out there? some people are still wavering. >> because the president's most vulnerable on the economy, john king, and any day that they're not talking about the economy is a wasted day as far as the romney campaign is concerned. >> it is. however, who you are as a person is critical to how the american people pick a president. in every election there may be a different number one issue. in this issue, without a doubt, it is overwhelmingly the economy. governor romney has an advantage on the economy right now but it's a pretty narrow advantage. if you look at our national poll, it's about five points.

that's not good enough if you're looking at this race from an idea that the american people for a couple of years now have had serious, profound questions about the president's economic stewardship. they are looking to see if there's an alternative out there. to be ahead is not a surprise. to be ahead by only five points think is a bit of a disappointment from a romney perspective. why isn't he ahead more? because people aren't sure he understands their struggles. does he understand the middle class? will he fight for them? as bill clinton used to put it, i'm on your side. is governor romney on your side? that's his big challenge. if they trust him as a person, then his gap on the issues where he has the advantage. his business experience is more of an asset. he'll be trusted more on the economy. if they don't think, as the obama campaign, and they've spent millions of dollar convincing american people he's this cold-hearted guy who cares more about money than your community. so he has to get at the empathy gap. if he can close it, it will help him enormously on the issues portfolio. >> easier said than done. donna brazile is here, ari fleisher is here at well. do you accept the notion that

his position on abortion changed as a result of moral factors as opposed to strictly political considerations? >> no, of course not, wolf. you know, we've seen on a host of issues. not just abortion. but, you know, gay marriage and you can look at taxes. mitt romney health care is on -- you know, supporting individual mandate, not supporting individual mandate. i think this week the challenge is for mitt romney to demonstrate not just to those in the audience, his base, but also to those undecided voters that, as john said, he's on your side, that he cares about issues you care about. the positions he's espousing now are the positions he will espouse if he's trusted with the presidency. he faces an authenticity gap. people don't know if he's for real. >> ari, the obama team, they've done a pretty good job in defining romney the way they want him defined. as opposed to way he would like to be defined. >> well, they've thrown a lot of

flak out there. sometimes it gets through. i don't know i'd say they've done a good job. if they've done a good job, why is the race so close? >> looking at the polls -- on the personal issues -- >> -- further head. >> flip it around. if i'm barack obama, i look at the polls. people think i'm popular. they done like romney that much. so why is he so close to me? the biggest dynamic in this race is going to determine who wins and loses. is barack obama has very little room to go up or go down. everybody knows him, known quantity. the economy is not going to change and get better for barack obama. the one big var rabl that can change is whether people like mitt romney. he has tremendous room to grow. i think if he grows on the popular front, which happens as the result the convention and debates, barack obama is dead in the water. that's why it's so close right now. >> guys, stand by. we have more to discuss. next monday, 8:00 p.m. eastern,

cnn will bring you "obama revealed." that's the documentary jessica yellin has been working on that you're going to want to see. it debuted next monday, 8:00 p.m. eastern, right here on cnn. the louisiana governor bobby jindal has decided to skip this republican convention and stay back home in louisiana to cope with the storm. coming up, we'll be joined by another one of the republican parties truly rising stars. u.s. senator marco rubio of florida. he's next. great shot. how did the nba become the hottest league on the planet? by building on the cisco intelligent network they're able to serve up live video, and instant replays,

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we're getting ready for the republican national convention. if he can nickly, technically it gab today but only ten minutes of it tonight. the real thing begins tomorrow night. senator rubio talking to us in a moment. john king first. john is standing by. he has new poll numbers. especially in florida, that's where we are right now. >> our convention is in a battleground state. you have a guest who is one statewide. he knows how difficult it is. how complicated the state is. let's look at our new poll numbers. this is the '08 map. president obama won florida 51% of the vote. mccain was competitive in florida but did not win it in the end. our latest polls. likely voters.

not just registered voters. 50 to 46. within the margin of error. slight advantage to the president right now. in a state the romney campaign will tell you, i know senator rubio will tell you, romney has to win. you can have other math mattic scenarios. to win the presidency, governor romney almost certainly needs to win the state of florida. let's look at what's at play right here. we see this in many other states. among men, governor romney has the lead. about a four point lead there. a much bigger lead for the incumbent president of the united states among women. a 12 point gap now. that is one of governor romney's challenges at this convention. needs to keep his standing. republicans typically win among men. he needs to narrow this gap here. if you look at the state of florida, i'll show you more closely in a moment but among independents now the two campaigns are tied. you have rough parity in terms of registered voters here. whoever can win the independents is likely to win the state. here's another challenge. a conservative convention. a conservative party. a lot of moderate voters in the state of florida. at the moment the president has a big edge among moderates.

let me push the polls out of the way to where we get to your guest. you know this state very well, as the old saying go, the further south you go in florida, the further north you get. a lot of northern transplants down here. the blue counties around miami. democratic counties. retirees up here. senator rubio lives in one of those counties. the top part of the state, much more conservative voters here. you're in the more southern part of the state. bordering georgia and alabama. where we are for this convention is right here. right here in this corridor in the middle. a lot of independents live in the i-4 corridor. from tampa to orlando. you see the split here between senator obama winning the big areas near orlando, especially the suburbs and tampa. when george w. bush won the state, those areas were red. when president obama won it, they were blue. that's your battleground within the battleground. >> no one knows the state better than the current senator from florida, marco rubio. thank you for coming in. >> got to get me one of those screens, play around with it. change the results.

>> go to cnn.com, you can do it over there as well. 50-46. obama's doing well. if he gets 50%, he's going to win 51%. >> i recall in 2008 where for a period of time senator mccain was in a significant lead in florida. that evaporated pretty quickly. florida's going to tighten up. again, these polls -- will have a different poll tomorrow that says something else. i'm not going to feel bad about it if we're four points down. i think that's what this convention's about at the end of the day is explaining to people here in the state and the country what's at stake in this election. it is not just a choe between a democrat and a republican. this is a referendum. it's what role we want government to play. it's what kind of country we want to be. that's what we need to accomplish this week. >> how much of a complicating factor is this hurricane, isaac, that tomorrow night, when -- mrs. romney is speaking, there could be a disaster along the gulf coast, whether in new orleans or elsewhere. >> well, you know, complicating -- the bottom line is that's more iortant, you know, the lives, the safety, the welfare of people. we can always have a convention at some other point. we have many weeks to run this campaign.

>> if there's a disaster, would you recommend postponing -- >> i don't want to speculate about the decision. i don't make that decision. the most important thing of all, the safety and well being of these folks in harm's way. you pray things will work out for them. we know they're better prepared than they were seven years ago for example when katrina hit that region of the country. let's just hope we don't have to face that. ving forward, we're going to have a convention and an election. that's going to be a very clear choice between two very different views of america. >> you're speaking thursday night. by thursday night, we'll know what will have happened. if you were speaking tomorrow night and had to make a decision, do i speak at a time when a hurricane is hitting the gulf coast, maybe on the seventh anniversary of katrina or do i say, you know what, maybe it's not the best time for me to speak, what would you do? because there are plenty of speakers lined up for tomorrow night. >> we wait and see what the intensity of the storm becomes. or whether the current path continues to be the path. let me say this, the convention's not just a big party. it's a working session.

there's business to be transacted here. part of it is the important business of electing the next president. it's one of the unique and rare opportunities that the people of this country are going to get to see. hopefully the next president of the united states, talk about his story and his vision of the future. >> i think it's one thing to do a roll call which is obviously critically important. that's the legal, the technical things. it's another thing for people to go up there and start bashing let's say president obama at a time when there's a national crisis. >> well, again, i think this convention's going to be a lot more about the choice the american people face. we're still going to have an election this november. i hate to get into the speculation. what i'm hoping for is at this time tomorrow, the storm is significantly weakened. found some part of the unpopulated region in the gulf. >> here are some other poll numbers. let's take a look at why mitt romney may be in trouble in florida and elsewhere. we asked in our cnn/rnc poll likely voters, who's more in touch with women. obama had 60%, romney had 31%. who cares more about people, obama, 53%, romney, 39%.

who's more in touch with the middle class? obama, 53%, romney, 39%. those are pretty startling differences. >> look, i'm not a political analyst. i'm not going to go through this poll and analyze it. what i am going to tell you is what this election is about. when we are done with this election. when this campaign is concluded and we are done putting out our case of why mitt romney should be the next president -- >> what does he need to to show the voters he's more in touch -- >> be mitt romney. mitt romney's an extraordinary person. at the end of the convention that will be clear to the american people. this is a person that is a father and is a husband and is a grandfather and is a member of his church, is a member of his community, has done extraordinarily special things, i mean, really important things. i said it the other day. the man and the way he's lived his life is a role model for younger men like myself. that are trying to balance work and family and responsibilities at home with responsibilities on the job. so i think irrespective of how you may feel about him on the issues, that's an important thing to tell people, who he is as a person.

it's important for people to understand the choice. it's a pretty big difference. between president obama who believes the way the economy grows is when the government spends money. and mitt romney who knows the way the economy grows is when people take their own money and have the confidence to invest it in starting new businesses or growing existing businesses. when that choice becomes clear to the american people -- those numbers are going to look very different. >> quick question. your former governor charlie crist has just not only endorsed president obama, he's a former republican, as you well know, but he's now going to speak at the democratic convention. how do you feel about that? >> he has the right to change parties and do anything he wants to do. he's running out of parties to run under. i think he has any choice that he needs to make, that's fine. we'll be interested to see what he says at the convention. i think at the end of this week what's going to be clear to the

american people is that we offer a vision that will turn us back to the -- >> are you finished with your speech you're going to be delivering, introducing it -- >> sure, actually, what i'm nervous about is i hardly ever write my speeches. i usually just go over some notes and talk. but this is important that it be written. i'm very confident about the man i'm introducing. i'm confident about what he will do for our country. i'm very honored to be able to do it in my home state in front of so many friends. >> give us a line or two -- >> i'm not going to give away my lines. you've got to come thursday. >> we'll be here. >> nice try. that's a veteran move wolf blitzer pulled on me. >> a little flavor what do you have -- >> a little journalistic jujitsu. i'm not going to give away my lines. i'll be giving a speech on thursday. it's about 15 minutes long. >> 15 minutes, that's pretty long. >> well, there's a lot to say about mitt romney. a the loe to say about this election. >> it's all done, you're ready to go? >> yep, i'm not going to give it tonight though. >> have you practiced yet? >> i need to. >> you got a teleprompter? >> i've never used a teleprompter. >> you want to stick around after the show? >> use yours, maybe. >> if you want to use the teleprompter for the next little

plug. whoo we're going to be doing out of here. >> depends what it is, yeah. >> how's your eyesight over there? >> it's getting worse. >> it's not that hard to do. you can do that. all right, never mind. we're moving into some serious stuff. later if you stick around, we'll let you practice. it's not as easy as it looks. >> i know it isn't, i know. >> senator, thank you. >> thank you for having me. >> a serious subject indeed, new orleans. it is certainly not the only place that suffered catastrophic damage. parts of the mississippi literally were washed away by the storm surge but residents say they'll be ready this time. we're going to show you what's going on in new orleans. anderson cooper is standing by one is for a clean, wedomestic energy future

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more from the republican national convention shortly, but

we want to give you an update on the gulf coast and new orleans. i am at the 17th street canal where seven years ago in hurricane katrina the levies failed that allowed water to pour into the city of new orleans. they spent billions of dollars to shore up the levies to build floodgates around this area and all around new orleans. this may be the first test of those floodgates and the system that is in place. there is a lot to tell you over the next hour. i want to show you the current track of the storm. anticipate feeling the effects of the storm in less than 24 hours here in new orleans. it is a slow-moving storm and we do expect it to be very wet conditions and a lot of rainfall and storm surge. for even a 24-hour period or so in this area, but also along mississippi gulf coast there,

bracing for the storm. i want to go to david mattingly in gulf coast. what are you seeing in terms of preparations there? >> people here have been through the storms many times before. when they look back seven years at the lessons learned from katrina, it pays to be prepared. bay st. louis today is still rebuilding. gulfport, mississippi. ocean front destroyed. gulfport today. sea side lots still vacant and for sale. the scars of katrina are subtle but plentiful as isaac bears down the same path, due to hit the same day. mississippians acting on tough lessons of seven years ago stand ready. >> look at what's happened the last 200 years, this house should be high enough to sustain anything we've seen in the last 200 years. >> corky had the home on bay st. louis was stripped down to the foundation by katrina. like others, he rebuilt stronger and higher.

>> 24 feet? >> it's 24 feet above sea level. >> more than enough it is believed to handle isaac. nowhere are the changes to bay st. louis more obvious than right here on the waterfront. when katrina hit, the sea wall stood at about eight feet high. that wasn't nearly enough to stop the storm surge. when they rebuilt, this is what they put in its place. in some places a pile of cement and steel more than double what it used to be. the u.s. 90 bridge on the mississippi gulf coast, broken into pieces by katrina, also restored stronger and higher. gulfport's $42 million harbor now bracing for the first test. >> the one that was here before katrina was built out of wood. this was concrete. built like a fortress. >> that confidence was everywhere. that stone when all his neighbors did not.

a chance he is willing to take for beachfront living. >> it gets angry from downtown, but the most beautiful sight i can see. >> this is what happened to the house in katrina. a new one built with the next big one in mind. windows that can with stand 200 mile per hour winds and cement walls, six inches thick. >> could this house stand up to katrina? >> not with me in it. >> he is making a bit of a joke. there is wisdom because people know that there is no such thing as a truly hurricane-proof building when you live here on the gulf coast. anderson? >> we will be talking about the preparations. let's go back to wolf blitzer. >> all five of mitt romney's grown sons stopped by the cnn grill here in tampa. they spoke with their own piers

morgan. you'll hear what they had to say about their dad's personal life as well as his politics. stay with us. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] at&t. the nation's largest 4g network. covering 2,000 more 4g cities and towns than verizon. at&t. rethink possible.

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